EPIX and MGM Television have, according to a story at Deadline, set Ray Romano and Chris O’Dowd to lead their upcoming Get Shorty TV series. Created and executive produced by Davey Holmes (Shameless, In Treatment, Damages), the ten-episode, one-hour drama series is a reimagining of Elmore Leonard’s 1990 New York Times best-selling novel of the same name. The book was also famously made into a 1995 feature film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo and Danny DeVito. Although their characters are named Miles Daly and Rick instead of Chili Palmer and Harry Zim, O’Dowd and Romano will play the Travolta and Hackman parts, respectively.
In Get Shorty, Miles Daly works as muscle for a murderous crime ring in Nevada. For the sake of his daughter, he attempts to change professions and become a movie producer, laundering money through a Hollywood film. But instead of leaving the criminal world behind, he accidentally brings it with him to Los Angeles.
“We’re excited to be working with MGM on ‘Get Shorty,’” said Mark S. Greenberg, President and CEO, EPIX when the Get Shorty tv series was first announced earlier this year. “I had the pleasure of working with Elmore Leonard early in my career and I am a big fan of his writing. Davey Holmes is a tremendous talent and has created a fantastic new series that is in the spirit of Leonard’s unique brand of social satire and strong narrative voice.”
Ray Romano recently lent his voice to the animated adventure Ice Age: Collision Course and starred in the HBO television series Vinyl. O’Dowd, meanwhile, can be seen coming up in Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
